Here’s a few things to know about pine furniture:

- It doesn’t respond well to oil-based stains.

- Make sure you either have it waxed regularly or seal it with water-proof varnish, otherwise it may warp.

- the proper term for a lot of pine wood is ‘Deal’. This is a softwood group including pine, larch, fir, hemlock, and spruce.

Pine is well-liked among woodworkers because it is more pliant than hardwoods and therefore easier to work with. Each pine piece has a different look due to contrasting shades of light and dark. The quality of pine can vary; because it is so supple, it’s easy to knots to create holes that render a piece unworkable. The rustic look that the pine adds to a home continues to be popular with consumers despite pine being prone to warping.

Pine being a natural wood, it requires constant maintenance. Because it is a softwood and not a hardwood, it dents and scratches more easily that oak or mahogany does. However, do not fret if your piece has a few nicks, cracks, or shakes – this adds to a pine piece instead of detract from it. Any additional minor damage might actually add character to the piece. Avoid exposing your pine furniture to moisture and extreme temperatures; this will help preserve it.

Usually pine is painted or waxed following the construction of an item. If it was waxed, the natural color of the wood still shows, but it is glazed and shiny, giving it a look that is unique look. If it was painted, the hue of the wood mixes with the color of the paint, and the nearly-rustic charm of the wood remains. But pine still breathes no matter if you wax or paint it, and therefore is still susceptible to heat, humidity, etc.

Unfinished pine furniture, like other unfinished furniture made from softwoods, is dear to the hearts of many carpenters, amateur craftsman, or homeowners who make their own furniture because it is so supple. This makes it easy to carve, shape, and alter to fit your design ideas. Pine works well in any area of the home, bedroom, living room, kitchen, or dining room. Using unfinished pine furniture can accentuate a home that already has a countryside feel to it, especially if you use other softwoods in your home. It’s not uncommon for homeowners to use one of every type of softwood for different rooms, or even different rooms on different floors.

Used correctly, unfinished pine furniture can be an accessory to your home well worth the time and energy you invest in it.

After you have bought an unfinished furniture piece that you like, the next step is finishing it in the style and color of your choice. To do this, you will need to sand the piece, paint it, and finish it. (Note that ‘finish’ is here being used as a verb, not a noun.)

Sanding

Nicks, scratches, gashes, etc. in the wood have to be sanded out before you can paint it. Remember, never sand in the direction opposite the wood grain; always go with the grain when sanding. Make sure your sandpaper is coarse enough to remove the damage easily without inadvertently inflicting more. This usually means sanding with an 80-grit or 100-grit paper. If you scratch the wood with the coarse paper, sand those scratches out with finer grits, up to 150-grit or even 180-grit.

Sadly, knowing what grit to start with is only a first step. Knowing what grits to use after you use the starting grit only comes from experience. Do not forget that if flaws still show up in the wood after you finish it, you can remove the finish with a paint-and-varnish remover, or just a paint thinner if you only applied stain, and start over. There is no need to sand out the whole color from the stain, only the binder, which is the stuff that makes the stain stick.

Staining

You are able to see what the wood will look like with a finish applied  by simply wetting it with a liquid such as paint thinner. If the wood is not the right color or dark enough, you will have to stain it. If you are using quality hardwood (oak, mahogany, or walnut [cherry blotches]), avoid using a gel stain. If you are not finishing quality hardwood, a gel stain is your safest bet as it’s very good for reducing blotching in the wood.

No matter what stain you use, the application method is the same. Using any tool (like a brush or rag), apply a wet coat and wipe off the excess before it dries. Start by working on smaller surfaces like the legs or drawer fronts to get to know the drying time. To fix a stain that has already dried, wet it by applying more stain then wipe off the excess immediately.

Do not overlap stains – applying the stain to the same area twice may result in a difference in color.

Finishing

You need to finish the wood to protect it from stains, dirt, water damage, etc. You can apply the finish directly to the wood or to stained wood. It’s more attractive (and protective) to stain and finish separately rather than using a combination of stain and finish. That is just a stain with more binder in it than normal.

Types of Wood

Unfinished pine furniture is easy to sand, but also easy to damage. Do not use anything other than 180-grit paper in a random orbital sander. Unfinished oak furniture is not quite so easy to damage, but it still is readily damaged if you sand too roughly. The wood grain can become raised and difficult to sand down. Again, a random orbital sander works the best along with at least 150-grit paper.

Furniture has a long memory. Since the beginning of written history humans have created furniture pieces in different ways using different methods, which are called ’styles’. Today, a piece made in one style can be much more valuable than a piece from another style. If the piece was made when the style was originally fashionable, chances are the piece is an antique and almost priceless. That doesn’t mean that pieces made in older styles today are any less valuable, especially if they’re made from good wood. Looking for them at unfinished furniture stores or any other furniture store is a hard road to take, however.

So, what are some of the styles and the eras they came from? They are usually divided into three categories: Traditional, Contemporary, and Mission. The Traditional-style room is organized, planned, and peaceful. There is nothing random or wild about a Traditional room. A Contemporary-style room is simple, using only the fundamentals to achieve a space. A minimalist view of furniture arrangement characterizes a Contemporary room. Finally, a Mission-style room isn’t likely to be seen anymore, since it was only popular from 1890 to 1920, and they’re mostly to be found in California. These rooms were distinguished by their elegance of design and a harmonious unity between purpose and form.

Specific styles, on the other hand, are a lot more varied than the three general categories. For the rest of this post, we’ll go through the styles one by one and discuss which one goes with what particular style of room.

The earliest style known is Gothic, first appearing in the 17th century. Many Gothic pieces were made of oak and featured simple but heavy designs. Most Gothic design principles were influenced by the architecture of the time, with right angles being a prominent element and curved lines being noticeably absent. A Gothic-style piece of furniture goes best with a Traditional-style room.

As buyers of Gothic furniture began to decline, the Early and Late Colonial styles rose to prominence. These styles mainly used pine and relied upon square lines with heavy decoration. An Early Colonial furniture piece goes best with a Traditional-style room and a Late Colonial goes best with a Contemporary-style room.

By the early 18th century, a style known as Queen Anne became popular. Queen Anne designs were known by agile lines and curves, with natural detailing. Common wood types used for Queen Anne pieces were oak, mahogany, walnut, cherry, and maple. Queen Anne designs generally go well with a Traditional-style room.

At the end of the 18th century, four kinds of Georgian styles replaced the Queen Annes’ in popularity. Georgian Chippendale, through the addition of baroque carvings, added to already well known designs. Georgian Adam made use of straight lines; Georgian Hepplewhite exhibited straight, thin legs that complimented Georgian Adam’s straight-edge lines; finally Georgian Sheraton created designs that utilized straight lines even more than Georgian Adam. The majority of Georgian designs used mahogany. All Georgian styles go well with either Traditional or Contemporary rooms.

The Regency style first appeared in the 19th century. Mahogany remained the wood of choice but new curves were added, creating a boldness unseen in previous styles. In the U.S., the Federal style was commanding attention, creating American interpretations of common English pieces. Throughout the 1800s, mahogany slowly yielded to rosewood walnut. Detailing on pieces underwent a change from simpler patterns to heavy, dark ideas. This heralded the ascendancy of the Victorian styles, one of the most (if not the most) popular and enduring styles available today. Regency goes best with Traditional as well as Federal, but Victorian can be used with any of the three types of rooms.